FCA dismiss claims for adviser fee reimbursement

This follows recent calls from trade bodies that 15% of total annual funding allocated to fee block A13 - advisors, arrangers, dealers or brokers - is too large a share, with the regulator stating that "it is not only recovered from financial advisers". The FCA estimates that the amount recovered from solely financial advisers is around £6m (8.5%) and the number of financial advisers to be 55% of the total firms that pay fees in A.13.

It also disagrees with that advisers have been 'overcharged' in previous years, stating that "creating a new fee-block will always lead to winners and losers in the short-term", and that this does not mean that some firms have been historically 'overcharged' any more than others have been 'undercharged'. It then goes on to outline that the FCA "are recovering the same amount of money from investment intermediaries as previously."

The FCA also confirm unchanged minimum fees for small firms for 2014/15 - typically up to £100,000 of total annual income - and goes on to state that in its October 2014 fees policy CP there are plans to to consult on a range of alternatives for calculating the minimum fees and keep them under review.